Restaurant thrives as a hot spot for locals

YORK – Four months after opening, Shorty's Diner has become a popular breakfast and lunch spot for locals looking for a classic American home-cooked meal.

Owner Gil Short said since opening in November, the diner is 30 percent above his original revenue projections, which included the summer months.

The restaurant is open daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Breakfast is served all day along with lunch options. The diner offers a sleek exterior with a silver façade and a classic diner aesthetic inside, featuring a kitschy 1950s inspired décor.

Shorty's motto is simple: "Good food, large portions, small prices." Short said the restaurant focuses on offering homemade meals with friendly service. Co-owner Bonnie Young uses her own recipes to make all of the restaurant's sides and desserts. She also makes her own tomato sauce and even cans her own pickles to use with various recipes.

The restaurant is located in the James-York Plaza shopping center on Merrimac Trail. The building, a defunct Pizza Hut, sat vacant for nearly four years before Short opened the diner. The renovations took five months to clean out, gut and rehab the space. Shorty's officially opened Nov. 1.

Shorty's opening coincided with a renaissance at the shopping center, where once vacant shops are now nearly all occupied. Melissa Davidson, senior business development representative for York County's Office of Economic Development, said filling the old Pizza Hut building was key. The restaurant's newly manicured exterior and visibility in front of the main shopping center attracts attention.

"That's the first thing you see when you're driving down the road and it draws people to the center," Davidson said.

York's Office of Economic Development has been targeting vacant buildings as redevelopment projects to help revitalize older business corridors in the county.

"It builds up the traffic there, even rehabbing one parcel," Davidson said.

Short spent his career designing horse race tracks including Colonial Downs in New Kent but he said "in between race tracks I had a career in restaurants." He has owned restaurants in Florida and Ohio.

After retiring, Short got restless and decided to open another restaurant.

"This is just a fun thing," he said. "I just saw a need for a local type place on this side of town."